December Meeting Gift Exchange

What a great meeting to finish of 2012! We had a "gift exchange" by going around the room and sharing a piece of software, hardware, a website, a tip, whatever... something we find useful that others might get some use out of. We had some great "gifts" and lots of really good conversation. As a gift to you, here's a list of everything that was mentioned - Merry Christmas!

ShotList - an awesome iOS app that is a huge help when on a shoot. Keep track of what you have done, rearrange the schedule, and never miss another shot. A new version was recently released that added .xls import/export, printing via AirPrint, email .pdf file, and support for Retina Display iPads, iPhone 5, and iOS 6.

Disksomnia - software to prevent external hard drives from going to sleep.

Use FCP X 10.0.6 (and newer) feature of multiple viewers to help match colors between shots. By making a compund clip of one clip, it is saved back in to the Event Library. With the Event Viewer open, find the compound clip in the Event Browser. Then in the timeline, find the clip that you would like to match color to it. It's also very helpful to have the video scopes turned on. Use the Settings pull down in each scope to set to Vertical orientation - this makes it much easier to see the scopes while you're adjusting the color of the clip in the timeline.

Duplicate a clip in the timeline and place it above the original. Change the blend mode in the clip on top to overlay. This adds a darkening effect to the clip, which can be handy if you have brighter spots like a sky that need to be brought done a little.

NAS drives can be very advantageous to productivity as your files are available everywhere. The Buffalo NAS, Seagate, and Iomega were all mentioned as having similar features.

A couple of websites for the DIY'ers out there - Indy Mogul and The Frugal Filmmaker.

A Canon user was feeling a bit jealous of all my love for the Nikon DSLR cameras, so his gift was one he'll be opening this spring - the firmware upgrade for the 5D MarkIII that will allow clean output via HDMI.

For those fighting with parking meters in Indy, download the iOS app Parker. It will let you pay the meter, extend it, find available parking spots, and use the GPS to help you find your car at the end of the day.

If you're looking for a small, affordable HD video camera, the Canon XA10 could fit that need.

If you're a documentary filmmaker, you might want to put some polish on a pitch for your next film and submit it The Pursuit of Truth, a new reality show from Vince Vaughn and Glenn Beck.

OmniGraffle is a Mac and iOS app that can be used for shot diagrams, among many other uses.

Fotodiox sells DSLR accessories, but was mentioned specifically for the lens adapters for Sony NEX5 cameras.

Edelkrone makes some high quality DSLR rigs to make going handheld a much less difficult task. Thay also have a new slider coming December 12th.

Hand Held Hollywood is a great site to keep up with all of the video production based iOS apps that continue to be released.

The new, thin 27" iMac with Core i7 processor and Fusion Drive.... yeah, I thinnk we'd all like one of those to appear under our trees!

Videoblocks.com is a great source for affordable stock footage, music, sound effects, motion backgrounds, and After Effects templates. Their annual subscription is an especially attractive option.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog, or TUAW, is a great source for news on all things Apple.

Do you like some of the features of the GoPro, but like others of the Contour? Well, the Sony HDR-AS15 might be what you're looking for. It's an extremely small packing that comes with a water proof housing and several mounting options. It has a built in wifi server, so you can use a iPhone or iPad to control the camera, but more importanly, they can be used as viewers and controllers of the camera.

Digital Heaven is a great source for Final Cut add-ons for both 7 and X, including several free effects.

DigitalRev TV is a great source for camera info, but what makes it unique is Kai, the public face that hosts their large library of videos of camera comparisons and reviews. A great sense of humor and light heartedness makes these fun and easy to watch, but don't be fooled - the information is valuable and spot on.

Fstoppers, a video blog for creative professionals with reviews, gear, and a great blog.

Photography and Cinema is an online store for video accessories, rigs, dollies, and more.

This paint pole adapter is a must have bit of kit if you have a GoPro, Contour, or the aforementioned Sony, or use off camera flash. The adpater attaches to the end of a paint pole and allows you to position the camera/flash in places otherwise unreachable - extremely high or way out in front of you.

Need a good way to remove scrims or filters from the front of a hot light? Take a clothespin apart, flip it around, and put it back together.

Scotch tape is a great supply to have around.... to remove specular highlights from shiny items, such as mirrors and chrome trim. It's a great alternative to dulling spray.

Need a rig for your RED camera? Check out Wooden Camera.

December Meeting

Our last meeting of 2012 takes place tonight at FOX59. One of the topics will be a Christmas inspired "Gift Exchange" segment, where we'll go around the room and give you a chance to share something that might help others.... a piece of software, hardware, tip or trick, website, podcast, whatever. Shouldn't be too difficult, and your participation may be exactly what someone else needed to solve their problem.

October Meeting Review

Our October meeting has come and gone, and if you missed it, you really missed out. Our special guests were Joe Smith from Autodesk and Brian Mulligan, a Smoke editor at Indy's NBC affiliate WTHR. Brian showed us the capabilities and power of Smoke 2013 for Mac, breaking down a few things from his demo reel, from straight forward editing to visual effect heavy and complex motion graphic pieces, all done completely in Smoke. Joe graciously provided tons of pizza, salad, drinks, and desert for all of us to munch on throughout the second half of the meeting.

You can download a full working version of Smoke 2013 and use it for free until the end of December. Smoke is an incredibly powerful platform, and with that it has a bit of a learning curve. A couple of resources you should check out are Autodesk's community forums, called AREA, and fxphd, a visual effects, production, and post production training site. Brian happens to be one of the Smoke professors there.

Brian Mulligan talks Autodesk Smoke.

After Brian wrapped up, I ran through the new features of Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6, which was released earlier this week. The update has a ton of stuff that a  lot of people have been vocal about wanting. Things like a separate viewer for the Event Library, selective attribute pasting, multi-channel audio editing, and chapter markers, just to name a few. One of the great things Apple is doing isn't just reintroducing old features that were in the earlier releases, they are make them better as they bring them back. The Chapter Markers with it's individual frame pin to set the poster frame and the new Paste Attributes window are just two examples of this. It is also clear that Apple is listening to it's users, so make sure you provide feedback to them on things you'd like to see them fix/change/implement.

I completely missed the fact that Apple added 42 new efects, transitions, generators, and titles in the 10.0.6 update - thanks to Alex Gollner (otherwise known as Alex4D on Twitter) for the heads up. WHile you're checking out Alex's Twitter feed, be sure to catch the post with a link to some speed tests he did comparing FCP X to Premiere Pro (spoiler.... FCP X blows it away).

We finished off the night by giving away 2 copies of CrumplePop's Fisheye Fixer, a license of PluralEyes 3, a $100 credit for motionvfx.com, a $500 Artbeats credit, a $100 credit to Pond5, and last, but definitely not least, a Noise Industries plug-in for FxFactory by Yanobox called Moods.

It was a great evening - a lot of fun with a good sized crowd!

FCP X, Motion, & Compressor Updates

Apple released updates to their pro video apps today, bringing some significance enhancements to FCP X in particular.

The FCP X 10.0.6 update includes multichannel audio editing, dual viewers, each having their own scope view, RED camera support including REDCODE RAW editing, 5k image support, redesigned Share interface, multiple range selections remembered in event browser on a single clip, chapter markers, XML update, MXF plug-in support, selective paste attributes function, flexible clip connections that hold still when editing primary storyline, faster freeze frame creation, enhanced drop shadow effect, and more! WOW!

Motion 5.0.5 includes improved anti-aliasing for sharper text, accelerated loading of complex projects, and the ability to have multiple projects open simultaneously.

Compressor 4.0.5 has improved cluster setup, the ability to re-activate additional clusters without re-authentication, and fixes an issue with third-party QuickTime components.

The FCP X update is huge, and again address a lot of concerns many have had since it's debut. As Apple promised, they are addressing those and adding significant enhancements, making FCP X even better essentially every quarter. That's awesome to see, and maybe more people that have been on the fence, for whatever reason, will finally see Apple is serious about this and will hop down to give it a try.

We'll cover these new features at the meeting Thursday night, or at least as many of them as we can. In the meantime, check out Philip Hodgett's blog post reviewing FCP X 10.0.6. He has some interesting viewpoints.

Stolen Gear from Indy FCPUG Member

Indy FCPUG member and Camera's & Crew owner Randy Thompson had a large amount of gear stolen from the Marriott North on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. If you run across someone trying to sell this stuff, or have any info, please contact Randy. Here's his story:

We were at the Marriott north September 25, 2012 doing a show for Kroger and left gear at midnight to return and do breakfast Kickoff at 6:AM to find that someone borrowed my entire sound system: Mackie 16 channel Mixer in a hard SKB case, Processing (DBX 1/3 octave EQ, DBX Compressor /Limiter) in a Gator 4RSP Bag, Press Box (2 HDSDI Black magic DA, 2Video DA, Audio DA), in a gator bag with Patch Panel on the front and Middle atlantic 20 Plug power distro in another gator bag, on the bottom wash a new SKB 8RSP rolling Case with Amp and Drawer with Connectors for everything. Setting next to this was a leprecon 24 channel lighting board. Cables , Microphones, LTI audio interfaces, VGA DA and an assortment of connectors that was thrown in to the Mixer Tray when we turned the room. I know that I usually travel with this racked in a cases to big and heavy to be easily borrowed but with the heart attack I had just redesigned so I can keep working with lifting limits please spread the work hopefully someone will provide me a lead to return my borrowed gear.

Randy's contact info:
cameras-crew@att.net
317-842-7757 w
317-965-7757 m